Monday, February 2, 2015

Real Fears & Bogus Ones: Telling the Difference

It is a matter of observation that our society
is awash in fear and the selling of fear. Look on the news programs any given
night and you will see it staring back at you and blabbering nonstop – from the
latest ISIS beheading outrage, to the latest terrorist bomb attack overseas, to
the latest food contamination scare, or some manner of horrific crime committed
on a college campus.

It’s all there and designed to be
fright-inducing because, well, this is
what the corporo media networks are all mostly about: stoking the fire of
collective fear. According to sociologist Margee Kerr from her upcoming book, Scream
– Adventures in the Upside of Fear:

“The
media loves to tap into the fear
response because it doesn’t engage with the rational mind.”

Which is true.
Interestingly, from a meta-perspective, this should place watching TV News at
the top of the most insidious sources of long term, free-floating fear. Both
Douglas Rushkoff (‘Life, Inc’.) and
Benjamin Barber (‘Consumed’) have
also warned how the news tends to be delivered in bits or sound bites with little or no analysis, explanation
or clarification –all of which reinforces fear.

If I had to put
the number one long term, rational fear out there it would be the
influence of the corporate media (including the print media) on vulnerable
brains, i.e. those lacking a good critical thinking antidote. And yes, it’s
that big a deal! Americans lacking this antidote have in the past 12 years: 1)
been drumbeaten into accepting the Iraq invasion, 2) been drumbeaten into
believing Saddam was in league with al Qaeda, 3) been drumbeaten into
retreating from acceptance of climate change caused by humans and 4) been
manipulated into retreating from earlier convictions that the Kennedy
assassination was a conspiracy.

Indeed, in 2007, a
resident ass ensconced at The New York Times actually wrote in the Book Review section (after bellyaching
about the latest book):

"These people should
be ridiculed, even shunned! It's time we marginalized Kennedy conspiracy
theorists the way we've marginalized smokers."

Well, pardon me,
but this certified nincompoop shows just how dangerous holding an influential
media position can be when the person is a know-nothing moron. An uneducated, lazy
moron who probably has never even seen one of Oswald’s CIA files! But this points up why I regard the American
mainstream media as a loose cannon that needs to be feared if one is not fully
armed with critical thinking.

Other long term
fears in what I regard as order of priority include:

-Climate
change disasters, local and global (e.g. loss of coastal areas due to sea level
rise)

-The
re-appearance of diphtheria, measles, whooping cough and other preventable
diseases by anti-vaxxers.

-The
failure to muster funds to find a cure (or at least workable treatment) for
Alzheimer’s disease – which number of cases is expected to hit 14 million by
2050 and over one trillion dollars lost in productivity, life quality, time
taken off by caretakers – not to mention medical costs.

-The
failure to seriously address the threat of moderate-sized asteroids such as the
Chelyabinsk object that struck Russia two years ago. One single asteroid of
that size, aimed at New York City, could take it out along with 8 million people.
(The odds of one hitting are 35 times more than for a large asteroid).

Now, what about more immediate fears that all rational people
ought to have? I list some of these as follows:

-Eating
too much saturated fat – i.e. in burgers, pizzas, and destroying one’s
cardiovascular system in the process.

-Not
getting adequate sleep before getting in one’s automobile.

-Texting
while driving, or even walking.

-Overusing
social media (e.g. Twitter) to the exclusion of reading actual books or
conversing live with actual people -
thereby risking permanent brain rot. (See also the book, ‘The Dumbest
Generation’)

This would not be
complete without listing the bogus fears that occupy too many today, but which
are less grave in relation to the ones above.

-Serial
killers, pedophiles (the risk that you or your child will be a victim is ten
times less than the chance a medium –sized asteroid will strike, or 1 in
333,000

-Mercury
in fish, e.g. tuna – all overblown by the fear mongers, I eat solid white
albacore tuna at least 12-13 days a month (the rest of the time salmon). Mothers- to- be should take more precautions,
but not eliminating tuna completely! It is high in Omega 3s!

-Air
travel – yes, you probably have heard this before, that you are fifty time more
likely to be killed in an auto accident than an airline crash

-Gluten
– again the risk is overblown, and avoiding any and all foods that contain it
is over-reaction.

-Vaccine
side effects. This risk is now greatly reduced since vaccines are currently
produced without the mercury-based thimerosal (especially for children under 6,
see the fda.gov site)

-School
shooting, mass murders – again, the odds
are about the same as a small asteroid collision. Yes, it is frightful to learn
of the latest on the nightly news, but the job of the news is to evoke fear –
so if you want it to abate, cease watching!

-Zombie
attacks or a zombie apocalypse? My virologist friend Beth assures me it will
only happen if humans try to revive corpses using cell grafting techniques from
live humans – especially by implanting stem cells into cryogenically preserved
corpse brains. Just kidding!

About Me

Specialized in space physics and solar physics, developed first astronomy curriculum for Caribbean secondary schools, has written thirteen books - the most recent:Fundamentals of Solar Physics. Also: Modern Physics: Notes, Problems and Solutions;:'Beyond Atheism, Beyond God', Astronomy & Astrophysics: Notes, Problems and Solutions', 'Physics Notes for Advanced Level&#39, Mathematical Excursions in Brane Space, Selected Analyses in Solar Flare Plasma Dynamics; and 'A History of Caribbean Secondary School Astronomy'. It details the background to my development and implementation of the first ever astronomy curriculum for secondary schools in the Caribbean.